Taking classes next year, but not sure what you’re doing for housing? Pretty set on a KE apartment or an off-campus house, but still looking? Consider Project Neighborhood. The best semester, year or more of your university career might await just down Lake Drive.

Why apply to live at a house with several people you might not know — a house with traditions, structure, and a service-learning requirement? Consider: besides absolutely beautiful houses, exceptionally cheap rent ($450/mo), free utilities and an easily managed, scenic commute, you will flourish in an intentional community here. Visit us for house dinner or game night and see what it’s like for yourself!

We can form intentional communities everywhere, especially with people we live with. But here’s a problem: studies, work, extracurriculars and relationships all make demands of our time. So while prioritizing conversations with roommates and suitemates enriches us, it challenges us. Who has the time to talk, whether to get to know them or to get them to do their dishes? More power to you if and when you do — but it poses an immense challenge. 

Here’s one superb solution: by providing structure, Project Neighborhood helps us to prioritize relationships with the people we’re living with and teaches us how to live together well. 

What should you expect, living in Koinonia? You’ll have a “real adult” house mentor or two, with one of your same gender, for males and females — but mentors are not RAs. They don’t focus on rules enforcement (we don’t have Calvin locking, for instance). Rather, Calvin pays PN mentors to facilitate good community living. Paige and Colton Wolfe currently serve as phenomenal fifth-year mentors. 

What else? You’ll eat a meal once a week officially as a house, and you’ll contribute to tasty cooking. You’ll share weekly half-hour devotions. You’ll attend church together once a month. You’ll write an agreed-upon shared grocery list, saving shopping trips and splitting the cost. (Per person, buying groceries for six or more people is incredibly cheap.) You’ll equitably divide house chores. You’ll likely have a roommate, though some people get single rooms. Each semester,  you’ll work towards 20 service-learning hours, which look great on a résumé. Perhaps most important: you’ll enjoy a weekly house meeting, with structured time for resolving house-wide conflicts, like doing the dishes, cleaning, and living together well. 

Visit us for our weekly game night or house dinner to experience some of these traditions for yourself!

Perhaps you think you can’t live here while keeping up with studies and other commitments, at least to the level you strive for. Yet, consider — Blessing Amoah, third-year PN resident and faithful attender of all required house activities, who was Calvin’s first computer science student to land an internship with Meta. PN has been home to grad students in Calvin’s notoriously rigorous speech pathology program. Personally, I always took 16+ credits, did at least two extracurriculars, participated in house activities, did homework on time, and graduated with a double major. Structured time with your house helps rather than hurts; because you spend this time together, you’ll likely enjoy more success in other endeavors than you would if you didn’t. 

Are there any people who should not live in Koinonia? Perhaps, but don’t rule it out right away. Here are some common turn-offs and why they aren’t as hard as imagined:

Time commitment: If you’re busy every weeknight until 10pm or later, scheduling will be tricky. So far, no matter how crazy our schedules are, we’ve always found time for house meals, meetings and devotions that work for everyone. No matter how busy your week is, shared house time makes it a better week.

Commute: If you have no bike and no car and don’t feel comfortable on the bus — although as Ezra writes, Calvin students should ride the bus — then the commute might be tricky. Yet all of those three options work. So does carpooling! I never had a car in undergrad and enjoyed regular carpooling with housemates, even those I wasn’t super close with. Biking is one of my main forms of exercise, and excepting a few weeks of snow, the route to Calvin is beautiful. It’s never taken me more than half an hour to get to or from campus, and it’s a nice meditative moment in the midst of busyness. 

Religion: If you’re not Christian, that’s understandable — you might feel uncomfortable attending church or house devotions. However, I’ve had some absolutely beautiful interfaith conversations with housemates at Koinonia. You certainly don’t have to be CRC, or profess certain confessions, to live in Koinonia. Some students considered various traditions as integral to their identity and have taught me so much. 

So, perhaps you end up living at KE, Timmer, RVD, or in a non-PN house with friends: no hard feelings. I wish you well, and I earnestly hope you form and sustain intentional community there too. For me, PN has sincerely been one of the very best parts of Calvin. 

Apply to PN in October when the application opens! Apply with your friends and we’ll prioritize you rooming together. Equally valid, apply by yourself and meet some amazing new people. In the meantime, come see the house. To RSVP, use the QR codes or email me ([email protected]). Contact me or Jay, director of housing ([email protected]), with any inquiries. 

P.S. Freshmen and people gone this fall, don’t rule out joining us for next year or (current sophomores) even for spring 2025. My roommate came here as a sophomore after studying abroad and has had a wonderful experience.